UAE telecom firms make progress in 4G development

The UAE's two telecom operators — etisalat and du — Thursday announced progress in their planned deployment of high-speed fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) networks. Etisalat, which earlier chose French Alcatel-Lucent to deploy the 4G network, has recently tested a new light Radio Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) product making the lightning-fast data connection over the operator's commercial 4G LTE network. Du Thursday said it has assigned US-based Cisco to the 4G network. Etisalat lately invested Dh6 billion in the 4G roll out that has resulted in creating ‘thousands' of stations, and extends LTE services through the major cities to cover 80 per cent of the population. "In October, Alcatel-Lucent and etisalat signed an agreement to jointly develop the most sustainable and efficient way to meet this demand using the groundbreaking light Radio portfolio. This successful trial of the latest technology marks a major milestone in making that promise a reality," etisalat said. Although 4G handsets are yet to be made available to the end-users at a mass level, the technology readiness will help the UAE enhance its global ranking in e-commerce and e-readiness, analysts say. The latest release of Household Download Index has ranked the UAE at the top position in the GCC and ranked 41 and 33 globally for the download and upload speeds, respectively. "The UAE positions itself as technology leaders by offering faster and cheaper per mbps internet, as compared to other competing nations in the GCC. The high adoption rate of cloud computing, fast and reliable internet are among the main contributors to internet subscriber growth and the effective cost per megabit per second rate," Vivek Malhotra, Principal Consultant, Information and Communication Technologies Practice, South Asia and Middle East, Frost & Sullivan, said. "The internet penetration was more than 75 per cent in 2011 which was among the highest rate in the region. With households' broadband penetration of nearly 56 per cent, the UAE is soon expected to be the leader and the first country in the world to have 100 per cent household broadband internet penetration through FTTH technology." Alcatel-Lucent showcased the capabilities of its new light Radio Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) product. Stephen Carter, President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We are happy to have the opportunity to work with etisalat to leverage light Radio to address their business needs. The work completed as part of this successful project has yielded valuable data about how service providers such as etisalat can very easily deploy Alcatel-Lucent's metrocells to transform the mobile broadband experience for their customers, while at the same time reducing their power consumption, costs and equipment footprint." Du will use the Cisco ASR 5000 Series as its mobile internet evolved packet core (EPC) platform to provide greater network performance and intelligence. LTE 4G will allow du's five million mobile customers to even more readily access their internet services, providing an effortlessly fast service with speeds up to 150mbps. Hatem Bamatraf, du's executive vice-president, Network Development and Operations, said, "This new 4G LTE network ensures that du will continue to deliver the most advanced, innovative mobile services to mobile customers across the country."